


Sixteen Again

by slinden



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Descent into Madness, F/M, Fake Age, Fake Underage but not really, High School, I Don't Even Know, Psychological Trauma, Student Rey (Star Wars), Teacher Ben Solo, but not really, i need a mental break from storm king so this will be a dumpster fire, tags to be updated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:55:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23071303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slinden/pseuds/slinden
Summary: Broke, dumped, alone and desperate, 23-year-old Rey fakes being sixteen to go back to the last age she felt safe and loved. When she's enrolled again in high school, her teacher, Ben Solo, starts to get suspicious of his student. Will Rey want to run or will she accept her attraction to her teacher and the consequences of her lies?
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 13
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I was listening to the Treva Throneberry case and got an idea.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?”

Rey lifted her head and wiped at her eyes with her threadbare gloves. What a stupid fucking question she wanted to snap. She was sobbing outside of a church in the middle of the night. In what universe would this be okay? What kind of question was that?

The heavy-set woman left her car and the door snapped shut in the heavy spring air, breaking the frost and her thoughts.

Poe had kicked her out. It was over. She had nowhere to live. All of her belongings were in a backpack at her side and it felt utterly pathetic to be twenty-three years old and have all of her stuff in one solitary, tattered backpack. And she had been for far, far too long.

The breakup came on the tail of her falling into herself over losing her job. Getting fired, getting dumped, all of it put her on those steps that night in a strange place across the country.

One of her foster mothers had told her that churches were always open and warm if she ever ended up back on the streets. Rey had felt a deeper level of betrayal when she tried to open the heavy door to the Catholic church and felt it solidly locked; despite what the placard said outside, they weren’t open for everyone to cleanse their souls.

The last three months had been a return to her pre-teenage life. She was back wandering around, desperately searching for work at the same time she looked for somewhere to live. God damn Poe Dameron and his fucking inability to see beyond a temporary problem for the bigger picture. She had dreams and goals. So what if they didn't align with his? She told him she could find work again. She could pay the rent eventually. If he could just let her curl up in bed for a while and cry it wasn't the end of the world. Their relationship had already been torn to threads as her shifts at the restaurant had been cut down more and more. Her boss didn’t like how she would talk back to customers who gave her the same level of discourtesy.

She’d drifted to the next town after he'd kicked her out.

Then she caught a ride to the next state. 

And now she was across the country.

Every time she moved, she lost more weight and more of her belongings.

There weren’t many people willing to hire a dirty and desperate looking girl to be a waitress. The work she found here and there hadn’t been enough to ever find a place so she kept drifting further north.

So, homeless and alone, she tried to find refuge with Christ. And even he didn’t want her.

But this woman, in her purple sweater with two happy cartoon rabbits on it, had asked her if she was okay.

Those were the first kind words that she had heard in a month or more. Probably more. Poe didn’t really appreciate it when she wasn’t bubbly and happy; the year-long relationship really wasn’t built on more than their physical chemistry. That’s all it was. Good sex, bad communication.

And now she was alone.

And this woman needed an answer.

Wiping at her eyes, she snatched up her backpack. She could still run away. She could outrun this woman. She didn’t finish fourth in state in cross-country running just to lose those abilities as she got older. She was even slimmer now that she hadn’t been able to afford to eat properly in too long.

“I’m…I’m fine.” Something in the woman’s eyes made her stay in one place, breathing deeply to stop from crying. “I just needed somewhere to go.”

Frozen by the stranger’s green eyes, Rey watched her approach and felt her shoulders go limp. She slumped down on the cold concrete again. Her jeans needed to be cleaned. It was rotten that she only had one pair.

“Oh, sweetie,” the woman said, sitting down and putting her arm around her. “It will get better. You’re okay. You’re safe with the Lord.”

Rey wanted to scoff but dumbly nodded instead. “I…I was looking for him.”

“He’s all around us. But here, here’s where you can really find him. I’m Agnes. Who are you, darling?” She was warm and plump, like one of her first foster mothers before a string of brutal and hateful women and even worse men.

Rey realized in that moment that the last time she’d really been happy was when she was sixteen. That foster home had been a comfortable and happy family. The younger children there had loved her and she truly felt like she could be herself. They were the ones that encouraged her to run. They were the ones that said she could be something. But then she aged out. And nothing ever felt the same.

“I’m Rey,” she muttered.

“Well, hello Rey,” the woman’s warm hand pressed on her knee as she spoke. “Is there someone I can call for you? Your parents?”

Rey wanted to scoff. Her parents died when she was four.

She could reach out to her old foster home. She could give her Poe’s number and get this woman to beg him to take her back _again_.

But instead she sat back and studied the woman.

“They’re…they died. My father killed my mother and…” she trailed off and shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it. I ran away. I couldn’t take it anymore. I've been on my own since then.”

She must have been desperate. The lie came fully and easily to her mouth and the woman looked at her with increasing concern. It wasn't a true lie. Her parents had died in a car accident and there had been no one to take care of her. That's what set her down this road. But if it were somehow worse, this woman would feel something for her. Her hand tightened and she shook her head at the start of a sorrowful, yet false, story.

Poe always told her that her imagination was too big, something that wouldn’t get her where she wanted to go.

She’d make up stories for him, just to see him smile. And he would, in the beginning. By the end, he just called her a liar and to stop imagining her past as something better or worse. It was how it was, he said. Lying about it won’t make it better. No one will ever feel sorry for you, Rey. Be an adult. Learn how to take care of yourself. 

That fucking asshole. He’d just used her and kicked her out.

“Oh, sweetheart.” The woman, Agnes, hugged her again. “How old are you?”

She dropped her head. “How old do you think I am?”

She was a grown woman, crying on the steps of a church. She was pathetic in the middle of nowhere with no home, job, or boyfriend. Everyone that had ever hurt her in the past must have been laughing really hard at that moment because they had won. Those bastards would have the last laugh. This woman was going to call the police. She was going to jail _again_. That was why she left the state in the beginning and then just started drifting. Getting caught sleeping somewhere warm and safe that wasn’t a drug-addict central had left her so much more vulnerable that she ever wanted to feel. If she kept moving, she wouldn’t end up in overnight again.

“You can’t be more than sixteen. Come on. Come sit in the car. I’ll take you home and you can get cleaned up and feel like yourself again. We will sort it out in the morning.” Agnes’s voice got more chipper and certain as she spoke.

Rey felt her body go rigid. Her heartbeat rattled in her ears and then

The last time she had been happy was when she was sixteen.

What would happen if she could just do it again?

She was tired, hungry, dirty and cold.

Most of all, she was desperate and tired of being alone.

Her young-looking face had always been a problem. No one would hire her until she could prove she had actually _worked_ since she had been a teenager. They all thought that she was some dumb idiot.

But what if this could work to her advantage?

The dull thought started to build until it screamed at her.

Poe always thought she was too immature to do things on her own.

But what if she could be taken care of again?

Looking at her ratty gloves and then up at the stars, she sent out a silent prayer that taking a chance like this wouldn’t blow up in her face. But then again, even when she tried to do everything right it all fell to pieces.

She had failed at being an adult for the last seven years.

Who wouldn’t want to have a second chance?

“Yeah, I’m sixteen,” she heard herself say. “And I don’t have anywhere to go.”

Agnes’s arms were around her again. “Well then come on. Let’s get you home and you can have something to eat. You are so thin. How long have you been on the streets? Oh, sweetie, thank God I was out for a drive. No one would have ever found you.”

As Agnes helped her to the car and made her put on a thick, warm coat, Rey felt safe for the first time in too long.

She could do this.

She could be sixteen again.

And someone would take care of her.

Isn’t that what everyone wanted?


	2. Chapter 2

Not having any ID let her create even bigger lies.

And every time she continued to craft her story, she imagined Poe’s face as she spoke.

She had to run away, she sobbed to Agnes, safe on the woman’s couch in a warm house filled with tiny porcelain dogs. Her father had abused her for years, keeping her locked up. Her mother had homeschool her, but she still felt stupid. She had never had a real friend.

Poe had never laid a hand on her. Her parents had tried to love her but died and left her alone, just like he had done. The meanness of other foster kids growing up had burrowed into her soul, making the lies come easier and quicker. She didn’t have any ID. She had been born at home and never saw a doctor or else father would beat her. She wasn’t a real person, she cried. If she didn’t run away, she’d be dead too.

Agnes shook her head, drying her tears. When had been the last time someone had done that for her?

“Oh, you poor girl. We’ll figure things out in the morning, okay?” The woman rubbed her arm. “You can stay in my daughter’s room tonight. She’s away at college. You might be able to find some clothes in there too. I can show you the washroom, and the room, and you can take a shower while I make you something to eat. You’re just too thin.”

The warm tones of the woman’s voice were starting to make it easier to believe her own lies even more. She _had_ been mistreated. She had been forced to just stumble around without direction because no one wanted her. But this stranger, this woman, was so warm and trusting. Maybe they weren’t really lies, in the end. Her parents were dead and she had nowhere to go. What was the truth anyway?

In the strange girl’s room, she dropped her backpack and gave Agnes a long smile. “It’s been so long since someone has been nice to me.”

“Everyone deserves to be loved. And a girl like you needs it the most. I’ll get you a towel. The bathroom is just across the hall.” Her fat cheeks rose every time she grinned. “Everything will be okay, Rey.”

Sitting down on the strange bed as the door shut, Rey looked around the room and decided that she could wait to think about what she was really doing. There would be time for all of that after she showered and had something warm to eat.

But the next morning came hard and fast. She was woken up to the smell of bacon and eggs and a happy song with the knock at her door. She had to get up. There were people there to see her.

It made her instantly cringe. She instantly imagined it would be Poe sitting there, just to yell at her one last time for being stupid.

Shuffling out in borrowed pajamas, she made herself look as small as she could, pulling her hair over her face. What had she done when she was sixteen? Her hair was always in a ponytail then, happily biking to her friends from her foster home. Since then, she’d just let her hair fall down, too lazy to really try.

She had expected the police. Instead there was a priest there and a dark-haired man with a striking face. Blinking from behind her hair, she felt his sharp brown eyes on her and then saw them soften as she gradually came into the room. She looked down again, trying to ignore how she wanted to look at him more.

She had almost forgot the priest and Agnes were there.

“Father Canady, vice principal Solo, this is Rey.” Agnes put a soft hand on her back and she jolted a little before giving her a tight smile. She breathed out and quickly took a seat, eyeing the breakfast on the table. Last night it had been warm, homemade stew. Now, it was pancakes, bacon, and eggs. She could everything on the table. She wanted to eat everything on the table to forget vice principal Solo’s eyes. “She’s still a little shy. I think she’s been through a lot.”

“Rey,” Canady spoke first, his voice gruff. “How are you doing? I heard you stopped by my church last night. Were you seeking comfort?”

She blinked, but slouched lower. “I was looking for somewhere warm. I’ve been…running. For a long time.”

“How long?”

She shrugged. “Too long.”

Agnes sighed, telling her she could eat. She quickly started digging into the food, trying not to listen as the other woman gave her fake backstory. She’d never been to school. She didn’t have any ID. She had nowhere to go and, look, she must be a good Catholic girl. Wasn’t there anything they could do for her?

Finally, Solo sighed and she flashed her eyes up to glance at him before drinking the orange juice beside her plate. “It will be hard without any records to get her placed in a regular class, Agnes. And the fact that she doesn’t have any identification…”

“I was homeschooled,” she piped up, then quickly put a piece of bacon in her mouth. “I’m not stupid.”

But the sound of his voice…she wanted him to talk again.

“She needs to go to school, Ben. She’s just a girl. I just want you to ask the school board. I can take care of her. I have this house. I used to have foster children years ago. I should be able to make things work.” Agnes touched her shoulder again. “This is a small town. We have to take care of one another.”

Rey dared to glance up again and caught a sharp look from vice principal Solo. She was almost sure he was about the burst the charade. But he kept the annoyed look when he snapped his head to Agnes.

“I know it’s a small town. That doesn’t mean there aren’t rules to follow.” He stood from the table and sighed. “But I’ll see what I can do. I have to get to the school. I will let you know what they decide.”

And then he left.

And Rey hunched down lower, suddenly filled with fear that her entire fantasy was about to be burst by an angry man with a striking face and dark, yet suspicious, eyes.


End file.
